The wellbeing of child welfare institution professionals

Abstract

In the past few years, the topic of wellbeing at work in the child welfare field has been discussed through media and there has been wider research done by trade unions which show the harsh reality of the turnover in this line of work. This thesis examines what factors support the wellbeing and recovery of workers at a child welfare institution, and how do the workers cope with the demanding job.

In this thesis, the focus was on one work team from a special-level child welfare institution. The aim was to get the workers’ point of view on the matter, and to give their experiences and opinions a platform. Four workers were voluntary interviewed using qualitative interviews and the results were analysed using thematic analysis method.

The findings show the themes that affect the workers’ wellbeing and recovery both at work and in free time. Some themes regarding work that emerged were client cases, work team, legislation issues and mental support. In free time, the main results were social relations, sleep, exercise, and ability to separate work and free time. Additionally, the worker’s own personal resources and attributes showed an effect on the foregoing. However, the employment showed to have the bigger responsibility of the workers’ wellbeing and coping at the job than the worker themselves.